Email Account Overwhelm to Inbox Zero

Your 3 Steps to Inbox Zero

My email account needed help. Luckily I found Steve Dotto of Canadian TV Computer show fame of many years. Now online with his program Dotto Tech. If you don’t know him, learn about him here. I think he is terrific!

Overcome information overload, get control of your email and the rest will fall in place!We think that stress affects your health. Having an avalanche of emails can cause you stress. Have you ever hit the pillow and thought “oh did I send that email” or “did I check that attachment etc.” Disrupting your sleep is not healthy. Learn about email sanity here…

Here are the three points about email
1. Understanding
2. Dealing with the damage
3. Systems and habits

How many emails are in your inbox?
They did a poll on the webinar (listed below) 40% were over 1000
I checked a few of my email accounts and was really surprised! In one – 8,002 in another 10,955 and I and I have other emails in gmail as well. Yikes! Terrible, out of control. Due to a fear of losing something.

Work Smarter
What is email account overload? Like on Facebook’s relationships status – it’s complicated!
Opportunity, responsibility – business stress
Loss of control – a curse
In control – a blessing

Steve Dotto had a contest he told us about. “How many messages in your inbox?”
The winner was 95,000!!! He sent the winner 3 emails – he never collected the prize – likely never saw it because he was drowning in so many emails. He just couldn’t keep up. Can you image how stressed out he was? Another guy phoned someone to look for his email. Lack of respect for himself and the person he phoned to check for his email. Steve didn’t like that guy!!

Email Account Types
1. The Hoarder – must keep every email but does nothing with it. But can’t delete it.
2. The Merry-Go-Rounder – opens email closes email again and again and again. Never doing anything.
3. The Ostrich – sometimes the boss. He believes someone will do something with it, or people will call him about it. It will just go away. Nothing gets done with it. Which one are you? I was #2.

What email is NOT

It is NOT your calendar

It is NOT a To Do List

It is NOT a Task Manager

It is NOT a filing system

Your Brain
What happens in your brain when you open an email account?
– It’s an open loop – the brain tries to keep it
– You scrolled past the first page but your brain knows it’s there
– Your brain as you fall asleep does mental checks
– This could be a profound change in your life to manage your email
– The brain can relax when there is white space at the end of the inbox

No one was taught how to manage email. I’st reacting rather than being proactive.

Getting things done
A routine – a system done at the same time each day – helps to stay in control

Handle It Once
I was once a Mary Kay Director and I will never forget Mary Kay Ashe’s business advice about handling paper in her inbox on her desk. Handle it once – read it and take action – do something with it. It does not go back into the inbox. Excellent direction for your email account inbox as well.

Steve Dotto has a mini course on email accounts that he is giving away for free.
1. knowledge – reality check – email personality
2. clean up – the heavy lifting (you don’t want to cook in a dirty kitchen so clean it up daily)
3. maintenance – the way you deal with your email every day

Always use the 5 options (above)
In the after the webinar Q&A he answers questions like: how do you send email to Evernote – premium forward to indivual note books

How do you send email to Evernote – premium forward to individual note books
Gmail use folders for organization
Use unroll.me as a digest for many of your emails and more…

Step 2
One inbox tackle it once and for all
Clear up the backload
Build a new system
Clear your primary inbox (s )I have many
Video

Step 3
The Golden Rule
On your way to a stress-free inbox

Every time you change tasks, you divert your attention. Then when you go back, it takes a while to re-focus your brain and the task takes longer to complete. Schedule email several times a day but at designated times only.

Combine with the Golden Rules of Email and you’ll find yourself doing higher quality work, and
faster than before, plus you will sleep better at night!! My email account(s) are now at Zero! Yaa!!!

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12 thoughts on “Email Account Overwhelm to Inbox Zero”

I remember Dotto’s Cafe, I think it was called. I learned so much from that show when I first came online.

I’ll admit I’m an email hoarder. I never really thought about the effect that full inboxes could have on my brain and stress levels. I found that section really of your post really interesting. Needless to say, I’m going to start working toward inbox zero and less stress!

Hi Ruth,
Was that the name, I don’t remember. All I recall was that he was very entertaining and so helpful.
If I was flipping through the channels and I spotted him, I watched it. Even with remarks from my husband, not again. lol
I was thrilled to find Steve Dotto online. A gold mind of information. I am taking his free course on Evernote that comes
with his membership program. Don’t miss his free email program that he offers. Thanks for your comments.

Hello Kathryn, Your title just drew me right on in my friend! Yikes this is so funny, I used to be an email hoarder!! First off I didn’t want to unsubscribe to all these lists I was on and I also would make files for each of them and file all these emails.. CRAZY RIGHT? When was I ever going to get to them?

I found myself wasting so much time with these. So my conclusion was to set a timer, I gave myself and hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to go through emails.

Well after doing this for a while I then decided, this was not really worth my time. Most emails were not even worth reading let alone filing LOL..

Anyways, I could go on and on about this but to make a long story short I now only subscribe to a few lists and have deleted all my files..

Hi Chery,
Thanks as you well know the title is REALLY important.
You do learn as you go with email. Learning how to organize was an eye opener for me.
Yes I have lovely pictures in my gmail accounts of my gardens or flowers. Now with very
little emails I can see them!!! Yaa Thanks for your comments.

Hi Ruth,
My brain is so less stressed since I cleaned out all my inboxes!! Thank you for the comments I do like how you
wrote that! “Use some of your procrastination time to clean up your inbox, answer important emails and file, delegate, or delete the rest”
His free course that he offers along with the video have been so helpful to me, that I wanted to share it!

Hey Kathryn , this post tells my story. I had to laugh at the part about your email not being your calendar or to do list. I recently opted out of a lot of list but I had to be honest with myself regarding why I signed up in the first place. I am to addicted to the same old junk that is given for free. Thanks much for the tips and I love being on the DOTTO list.

Hi Lydia,
Yes I used to use my inbox as storage, read 5 gmails of storage. Not any more. He mentions Asana
and I have used it before but think I will look at it again. You are on the DOTTO list? I am in the Patreon
paid program. Like crowdfunding for supporting his staff. Love the Dotto programs.

Oh dear, I am so guilty of this! I confess to being the “Merry-Go-Rounder” – and then of course I can’t find the important emails I meant to do something with! I just checked and I have 31,345 (!) emails – in my primary inbox. I actually have been starting to go through and delete email in batches… obviously still a LONG way to go!

Hi Karen, I too was a Merry-G0-Rounder but no more!! Like the winner of his contest who never got the email it’s time
to take control of your inbox. Try using the unroll.me It gives you a list of all your emails and it’s easy to delete that way.
Then you get a digest of email you do want at a time you set. Don’t miss the free course he offers, it’s really good.
Thanks for your comments.

Hi Ravi,
I do like using unroll.me It gives you a list of all your emails and it’s easy to delete that way.
I mentioned that there was a free course that he offers if you would like to organize your email.
Excellent training by Steve Dotto. Thanks for your comments.